The Comeback
by kiku-aku
Summary: Laura's back, Josh is conflicted, and Pete is utterly confused
1. Chapter 1

_A bit short but this is more of an starting/introduction chapter then anything, the filling's going to come in the next one, I'm planning on this being four_ _chapters long, so it might be a bit longer for other chapters to be posted._

_I don't own anything in this story but the plot._

It had been three weeks since the call had come though. Seven weeks; twenty one days, five hundred and four hours since it's come out of the blue.

Josh and the rest of his team had just finished the season, planning to spend the next four weeks just relaxing around the house. Josh had just dumped his stuff on the ground, causing the female resident to glare at him and Berto to almost trip and drop the younger man's own bags. He'd been in the middle of a fight over the mess (who cared if his clothing wasn't all washed?) when the phone had rung and been picked up by Berto.

"Josh, it's for you."

"Yeah? Who is it, dad?"

"No.. Just come to the phone."

Flowers would have been a bad idea to give to his ex on her first day home, even if a year long trip at sea had somewhat softened her towards him. They might have helped Josh's stress level though, seeing as Pete had stopped him from pacing a couple of hours ago and it wouldn't be a good idea of hi shirt sleeves got ripped to shreds.

Of course Pete looked calm, he hadn't been the one to cheat on the girl and almost ruin everything for the musketeers. He just stood with both arms folded across his chest, grilling Josh about what the blond haired man was not going to be doing or talking about.

"Remember, she's still a bit sore about the whole kiss issue… I've tried to explain it as much as I could without telling her about the whole 'secret agent super-hero' thing but, well you know." Yeah, Josh did know how it was and he was sorry for it, sorry that he's hurt his girl, sorry that his best friend had been dragged into the middle of it all. He also had to give points to Pete for trying to help out, last time the issue had come up they'd almost gotten into a fist fight and not talked to each other for months.

"Are you sure we shouldn't have gotten her something?" Josh began pacing again, his mind racing. "I mean, we did see those flowers at the gift shop-"

"Bad idea, they were brown and wilting. Isn't that her?" Pete pointed to a group of girls giggling and dragging suitcases behind them. Right in the middle, smiling that same smile, was Laura. "Hey! Over here!" Pete began waving his arms and hopping around, causing all the girls to look over and quite a few to roll their eyes or laugh at the sight.

The two men jogged over to exchange hugs (really awkward hugs on Josh's part, he could have sworn that Laura barely touched him) and grab their friend's stuff. All three trying to act like nothing had happened, or at least that no hard feelings were in place.

"The trip was great!" Laura laughed as she threw her stuff into Pete's trunk (his car being bigger on the inside and thus able to handle all the bags she'd brought along even though Josh could swear it was going to die on them each time he rode in it.) "I'm almost really sad to have to get back to collage and stuff. Though I don't have any pictures," She sighed in annoyance, "They managed to destroy all of them when I took them in to be developed."

"Well, the good thing is that you're back," Josh said, smiling as widely as he could. "Come on, I'll treat you all too some ice cream."

"Yeah, he's gotten a job while you got to measure fish," Pete joked causing Laura to laugh. Maybe this wasn't to be as horrible as Josh had first thought.

* * *

"Well I think that this is the last of it," Pete panted as he managed to haul the biggest suitcase to the top of the stairs to Laura's room. He looked down and groaned, spying a small box laying on the ground floor. "Never mind, I'll get it." He began trudging back down the stairs, leaving Josh alone with Laura for the first time since the breakup in Baja. Both of them looked away, Josh suddenly finding the wallpaper very interesting and Laura tracing her fingers against the dresser, looking at the invisible dust.

"So-" They both started then stopped, Josh waved his hand. "You go ahead."

"Thanks…" Laura seemed to steel herself for the next words out of her mouth. "Look, the year at sea gave me a lot of time to think… and.. I don't know if we could ever get together like we did before-" She stopped when a loud noise followed by Pete swearing a storm interrupted. The two smirked as something went down the stairs, followed by silence.

"I think we should talk someplace without stairs," Laura laughed.

"Um.. Laura.. was anything breakable in that box?" Josh raised his eyebrow at Laura's retreating back, surprised at the sudden suggestion of a meeting but not really against it. Maybe she's finally decided to trust him, or was it all just for the sake of not making Pete have to choose between the two of them. Shaking his head against the gloomy thoughts Josh followed his two friends to examine what damage the trip down the stairs had cost Laura's makeup.


	2. Chapter 2

_Alright, chapter two, this is the point that I start showing a plot, sorry for the first chapter but I seem to have trouble writing first chapters. And this chapter's a bit short/rushed. sorry about that also._

"So, did you have to wait long?" Josh asked as he sat down on the bench next to the black haired girl. She shook her head then went back to watching the people jogging around the park, the silence stretching until Josh felt that he had to say something, no matter how stupid.

"So, I guess you've gotten unpacked," Josh finally mumbled, earning a nod and slight grunt in reply. This was going to end up being harder then he'd first thought. "Look Laura I-"

"Hey! I didn't know that you two were going to be here!" Pete broke in, suddenly appearing with a pizza box in his left hand and cans of something in the other. Josh glared at his friend and wondered if Pete had put a GPS tracker on Josh and Laura; every time the two would get alone Pete would show up with the "I can't believe that you two are also here!" look on his face. It was starting to bug Josh, who had a faint inkling of why his friend was doing this.

"Pete!" Laura said in surprise, "Why don't you join us?" She gestured towards the bench that the two had been sitting on." He grinned back and sprawled across his seat, making Josh's teeth clench together.

"I hope I didn't interrupt whatever you two are doing," Pete said cheerfully though a mouthful of cheese and bread.

"Oh no, it's great to see you again," Laura smiled at Pete and began to eat her own food. Josh jumped to his feet, not able to keep his annoyance from showing any more.

"Excuse me, I've got to get a drink of water," he almost snapped before walking down the jogging path. Behind him he could hear Pete make some excuse and run over to catch up with Josh, which made the blond haired man just walk a bit faster until he had finally reached the water. Pete looked back, to make sure that Laura wasn't able to hear anything being said then sighed and looked down at Josh.

"Look, I know that I've been kind of hanging on lately-"

"Kind of? Pete we could drag you into court for stalking!" Josh snapped back. "First you decide to not talk to me for months after the little stunt you pulled in Alaska and now that my ex is coming back you decided to suddenly become all buddy pal again?" Pete opened his mouth to say something but couldn't get anything out over Josh' rant. "Don't try the 'I just want to be friends with you' thing; I know you're only doing this because you're jealous!"

"Jealous? Of you two?" Pete managed to sputter out, his now red face betraying him. Josh just gave him a look; like no one (besides Laura for some weird reason) knew that Pete had a crush on her. That he'd been the one sending her secret gifts during high school but never had the guts to cut his friend apart when they were so happy together. "Look Josh, I'm just not trusting-"

"Me right? You're not trusting me to not hurt her again?" Though as Josh said it he felt something sort of sinking inside of him. Of course Pete wouldn't trust him, hadn't Josh already hurt Laura? He sighed and turned around, putting up a hand to stop whatever Pete was going to say and walking away, leaving his confused friend in the dust.

* * *

Hey, so how did the date go?" Was the greeting from Kat when Josh slammed the door shut. He stormed past her without saying a word, "Not to well I see…. Well Berto says you got a call from someone. She went back to crunches and watching some weird show on TV about people breaking into other's houses. Josh rubbed his head and kicked his shoes off before going on a hunt for the phone.

He found Berto talking to his más vieja hermana and being teased, from the sounds of it. Berto waved one finger in the air and go back to blushing and trying to defend himself in Spanish. Josh grumbled again and sat back on on of the chairs, waiting for the younger man to finish up.

* * *

Pete held his breath as the lock clicked back and he snuck into the room. He felt really bad and slightly embarrassed about all of this. This had to be the first time he'd ever even thought about breaking into a girl's room, let alone doing it. But Laura had given him a key just before she's left on the overseas trip "just in case I lose mine" had been her words. Now that she was back Laura had forgotten about the keys, or so it would seem.

As silently as one can when one is banging one's knees on the walls, Pete groped his way around the room until he got to the windows and pulled the shades down. Praying that no one was going to call the cops on him the dark haired man took out a flash light and began to look around the room with it, searching for what he'd been looking for, if it was even here.

* * *

"All yours hermano!" Josh grinned when the phone was tossed at him, catching it in his left hand. "I dialed the number for you already."

"Thanks bro!" Josh called back as Berto went off in search of something to eat. Fingers tapping against the chair arm Josh wondered who the heck had called him.

"Hello?" some girl's voice came though the static, "Who is this?"

"Umm, Josh McGrath? I was told someone-"

"Oh! Yeah, she did call you when she couldn't get hold of the other one, didn't she? Hold on a sec," the girl yelled something about Josh being on the phone then handed him off to whoever had answered. It was hard to hear what had been said in the background, to much static.

"Hello?" An almost tearful voice got on, one that Josh had heard before. "Oh thank god you picked up, Pete's phone's been off or something today and this is the first place that Stacy's phone would work."

"Laura?"

* * *

Pete could feel the hours ticking away as he pawed though whoever the hell it was' room. It sure wasn't Laura's, though he should have known that the first time he's started to think that she was acting a bit weird. Not asking for her key back, ignoring the fact that Pete had asked her about the pictures when he'd last talked to her and that she's said that they were just about to be developed. But Josh sure as hell wasn't talking to Pete now, so he had to find some sort of proof that things weren't right.

"Ah hah!" Pete had to keep himself from shouting when he found the folder with stuff in it. He opened it and felt sick at all of the pictures and notes inside of it, notes detailing everything that his friend had been doing over the past weeks. Either Laura was going to sell Josh's life story on e-bay, or Pete had been right.

"Alright Costas, lets get out of here and show McGrath this." Pete shoved the entire thing in his backpack then froze when footsteps sounded outside of the room. Not a woman's either; these were too heavy and sounded almost threatening. Sweat began building up as Pete span around, looking for a place to hid as the door snapped open.

"Look, are you going to- Well, well, what do we have here?" Pete felt as though his chest was going to explode as he felt something heavy, strong, and very angry grab his shoulder.


End file.
